OREANDA-NEWS. CROC implemented more than 2,185 projects in 2012, including 220 sizable implementations worth over USD 1 million each. These projects were implemented for financial and credit institutions, retail chains, telecom companies, government and public organizations, transportation and logistics enterprises and energy and manufacturing companies. CROC worked with approximately 900 companies during the year. The revenue ratio regarding federal (central) and regional projects currently stands at 60/40%.

“I am absolutely positive about last year’s results. We continue to run a high margin business and have not compromised on efficiency. New and very competent staff members have joined us and we now have over 2,050 employees. The new business lines include energy services, technology consulting and robotics. In addition, CROC has become the biggest cloud integrator in Russia over the last year by expanding its portfolio with all major vendor technologies. Furthermore, the construction of another office is a major initiative which is expected to be completed by next year,” says Boris Bobrovnikov, Director General, CROC.

The computer systems business recorded traditionally active growth as companies invested in business continuity and uptime, reliable data backup and guaranteed storage availability. Overall, revenue within CROC’s data storage business grew by nearly 20% in 2012. Projects included the creation of a backup IT infrastructure site and the development of a disaster recovery plan (DRP) for M.Video based on CROC’s data center, as well as the creation of a disaster tolerant platform based on two of CROC’s data centers for another retailer.

CROC’s outsourcing data centers expanded their service portfolio (colocation and dedicated hosting services) to include hosted virtual machines and applications, technical support for colocated hardware and IT systems, capacity monitoring, workload benchmarking and IT infrastructure auditing, etc. Indeed, revenues for this line of business more than doubled last year.

Today, CROC’s cloud is a conglomerate of cloud platforms from different vendors. CROC is certified as an Oracle Business Process Outsourcing Provider, an IBM Cloud Computing Specialist, an EMC Service Provider, a Citrix Cloud Solution Consultant, a VMware Enterprise Service Provider with a vCloud Powered award, and a Microsoft Gold Partner in Management and Virtualization. The Virtual Private Cloud technology developed by CROC allows for the creation of isolated segments within a public cloud. Furthermore, CROC is already experienced in cloud environment integration with customers’ physical hardware. CROC’s Virtual Data Center offers over a dozen services and applications (SaaS) with world-class reliability and protection from both typical (information leak, network attack) and cloud-specific (dependence on provider, failure to comply with regulations) threats.

Our cloud projects included: a product demand forecasting system, a test training environment for an information and analytical system, an archive of primary accounting records, and Russia’s first supply-chain planning system on Oracle Transportation Management solution.

Business applications revenue grew by 70% and financial management system revenue doubled in 2012 as enterprises improved business efficiency and manageability. Our projects included: a decision-making support system for directors, bankers and business units in a major bank; the upgrading of CROC’s internal business planning system for several hundred workplaces; and a BRMS system for AlfaStrakhovanie Group.

In 2012, CROC’s telecom business revenue increased by 15%. The top contributors to this increase were telephony (+32%) and video conferencing (+17%) technologies. Audio and video systems revenue increased at an explosive rate of nearly 150%, with AV solutions becoming more than just a prestigious system and proving their worth as marketing and HR tools. Among the outstanding projects were complex AV solutions for Sberbank Far East Bank's Office of the Future and Mosvodokanal’s Water Infrastructure Control Center.

The synergy of business and information technology continues to become stronger with regard to enterprise networks. A perfect example is the network traffic optimization which reduces network hardware load and accelerates business system performance. One large bank has managed to achieve a three-fold increase in traffic optimization efficiency, while a large telecom provider is running a mobile content optimization project with CROC to reduce its bandwidth costs and provide faster and easier Internet access to its subscribers.

An ever increasing number of business owners and top managers are keen on the idea of maximizing employee mobility. Remote access to company systems and business applications helps to increase the pace at which decisions can be made. Business mobility triggers demand for antifraud solutions which address both inside and outside threats. In particular, CROC expanded its competence in mobile device management (MDM), data leakage prevention based on content analysis (DLP) and access rights management (IRM). As a result, CROC's information security business grew by nearly 40% in 2012.

CROC’s software infrastructure solution practice demonstrated its consistency in 2012. Implemented projects included the creation of a unified information environment for AK ALROSA, which comprised a unified directory, enterprise email system, unified communications and centralized workstation and server management systems. Demand for virtualization continued to increase, with one large bank recently expanding its virtual desktop subsystem from 1,000 to 2,500 users as part of its unified distributed contact center creation.

The rising trend toward improved business process transparency and manageability is stimulating demand for BPM systems, software development and electronic document management. One of the largest projects was the upgrade of the electronic document management system at the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) of Russia. The system is shared by 80+ remote offices of the organization and has around 500 concurrent users. As part of this project, CROC used its Virtual Data Center’s computing resources for system testing and customer user training.

Large enterprises and organizations are paying more attention to the efficient use of energy resources due to the fact that engineering equipment requires increasingly more space; energy generation and transportation infrastructure is degrading, and electricity rates are increasing. CROC offers energy audit services for data center and building engineering systems to help customers optimize their energy costs. Over 2012, the company conducted several energy audits for its customers, implemented alternative energy source projects, and deployed integrated lighting control and engineering system management solutions.

“Last year, we launched an anniversary program called ‘20 Ways to Brighten Up Your Life’. The most popular services within the program were network inventory management and ITSM/ITIL consulting, which we provided to our loyal customers for free. By the way, our service revenue increased by more than 15% last year. Technical support outsourcing service revenue increased by a factor of 2.5, while revenue related to the maintenance of ‘light’ hardware, telecom equipment and software increased by more than 50%. We have taken these factors into account and are creating a unique and comprehensive offering which will be introduced to the market shortly,” says Veronika Taraba, Deputy Director General, CROC.

In 2012, CROC placed traditionally high emphasis on collaborating with its partners and expanding its competences, including those unique to the market, and concluded 24 partnership agreements with new vendors*. In addition, during the year, CROC received over 20 awards from its partners and was recognized as the Best Performing IBM Business Analytics Partner in RICS, the Best EMC Partner in Eastern Europe, VMware Best Partner and Radware Best Partner in Emerging Markets and was also endorsed by Polycom for Excellence in Services in the EMEA region.